Columbia Community Creamery

BY SYNDEY FLUKER

Drive past the Columbia Community Creamery in Chewelah, Washington, and one thing is clear: this place is about more than just its bottles of milk. 

“All profits to community” is painted proudly on the front of the building, making sure customers know that what’s produced and earned here, stays here.

“That’s a big part of it — we’re investing our money, our profit, into our local programs and food systems,” says executive director Brittany Bilte.

Only a little over a year old, the 5.01(c)3 cooperative creamery was founded by members of the Stevens County dairy farm community out of concern for their beloved but dying industry. 

The mission? Provide market access, processing and distribution assistance for small dairy farmers so they can stay on their land, diversify their income and provide education and high-quality products for the community. 

Though dairy production has thrived throughout the United States, recent consolidation trends have shrunk the amount of farms in the nation. Stevens County has been hit especially hard, whittling the original 360 dairy farms down to nine over the past 60 years. 

“Everyone who comes into the creamery says ‘I used to work on a dairy farm’ or ‘I grew up on a dairy farm,’” says Brad Shaffer, a retired Starbucks paralegal and board member who has volunteered since the creamery’s first days. “Everybody seemed to be associated with dairy farms. Drive around Chewelah and Colville Valley and you see a milking parlor at some old building on just about every farm, where they used to milk the cows.”

According to a 2023 report by Food and Water Watch, the average American dairy made a profit only twice in the past 20 years despite national milk production rising by almost 40 percent through that time. Rapid consolidation and rising production costs coincided with an eightfold increase in U.S. dairy exports, leading to a loss of two-thirds of family-sized commercial dairies between 1997 and 2017 as a handful of companies began dominating the industry.

In Stevens County, Darigold is the big player, slowly weeding out smaller dairies until just a handful remained.

“Everybody hates them, but everybody has to have them because that’s where they sell their milk,” Shaffer says. “If you can sell more liquid milk to them, you make more money, which calls for bigger herds.”

Stacy and Virginia Thomas of Clover Mountain Dairy recognized the danger their community was in and, wanting to reverse that trend, embarked on a mission to revive the dairy industry in their county. 

The couple formed a nonprofit corporation in 2022 and called on their community to build up the board. Veterinarians, dairy farmers, pasteurizers, local agrarians and a paralegal joined the team — eight volunteers giving their time to bring the creamery to life.

In early 2023, the team secured a $500,000 grant from the Washington State Department of Agriculture to get the creamery off the ground. Volunteers built as much of the creamery by hand as possible, relying on community support to bring the vision to life. 

In June of the same year, the creamery opened its doors to the public, welcoming people into its storefront on Chewelah’s main strip.

A labor of love, the creamery operated off the backs of community volunteers until it made enough profit to begin hiring full-time employees. 

The first person on payroll was Sam, Shaffer’s son and one of the creamery’s four licensed pasteurizers. As the operation grew — expanding the store, adding distribution channels, getting a refrigerated van — so did its employee list.

Now, the creamery employs eight people — including a high school intern — but relies on volunteers like Shaffer to keep things flowing.

One of these employees is Bilte, a Stevens County local who was raised on a dairy farm and found her passion for the industry through showing heifers in 4-H and Future Farmers of America.

Bilte joined the team in May 2024, overseeing orders for their wholesalers and managing the retail and processing areas. Coming from 10 years of experience at North 40 Outfitters and a lifetime of affection for the dairy industry, Bilte found the perfect career blend with Columbia Community Creamery.

“I was hired to take the workload off the volunteers,” Bilte says. “All those things Stacy and Virginia and Brad were doing out of the goodness of their hearts, it took a lot of their free time. My position was created so Stacy and Virginia could focus on their farm and cheesemaking and enjoy a little bit more of the creamery rather than having to do all the labor.” 

Bilte concerns herself with day-to-day operations and offering market access to dairy farms, which comes from the retail space. 

In the Columbia Community Creamery store, shoppers can find milks, cheeses, cream, yogurt, cafe latte, ice cream, butter and, this winter season, eggnog, all from a variety of local Stevens County dairies. 

Aside from the retail space, the creamery hosts a licensed lab with three state-certified technicians to test the quality of milk and operate the required machinery, ensuring everything on its shelves is nutritional and safe to consume.

The creamery doesn’t require expensive third-party certifications, but the milk has to have A2 genetics — the dairy protein most easily digested by humans. Because of this requirement, it pays dairies more for milk than big industries.

Columbia Community Creamery milk is non-homogenized and low-temperature pasteurized at 145 degrees for 30 minutes, which Bilte says provides the best balance of nutrition, taste and safety. The lack of homogenization leads to cream separation, which can be scooped off and used in various ways, such as making butter or yogurt.

The creamery also works to provide dairy and agricultural education to the community. The nonprofit has donated money for the Northeast Washington Fair dairy barn for awards and prizes, also supporting local youth agriculture through its high school internship work program. Local students come through on field trips, stopping in to learn about the operation and watch the bottling process.

“It’s fun to bring the kids in,” Bilte says. “Hopefully we’re inspiring some future dairy farmers, pasteurizers or milk truck drivers. Promoting agriculture in our area, especially to our youth, is super important.”

Outside of youth education, the creamery hosts a variety of classes. November courses include an easy cream product class, where patrons will learn to make sour cream, buttermilk and clotted cream, and a bòvre soft cheese class. Early next year, the shop is hosting a butter making class and a local cheese tasting class — more details coming soon.

As the creamery looks toward the future, it hopes to grow its community to include more dairies selling their product at the retail store. It’s also looking outwards toward expansion in the Columbia Basin and greater Eastern Washington and Oregon.

“We want to take over the world, you know, but all in support of small farming and small dairy farming because the industry is having these same trends all over the place,” Shaffer says. “We want to reverse certain trends in the Western Hemisphere, but we don’t want to overextend ourselves in the process.”

Columbia Community Creamery products can be found at the retail store in Chewelah as well as a variety of markets in Spokane and Stevens, Whitman and Spokane counties, including Main Market, Yoke’s, My Fresh Basket and more. Follow their Instagram, @columbia_community_creamery_, to stay up to date with the creamery’s product and class offerings.

Columbia Community Creamery Retail Store

519 N. Park St., Chewelah, Washington

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